Fact sheet on how to grow hydroponic fodder

Livestock farmers spend up to 70 percent of their resources on producing feed for their animals. According to a study by a research published in Academia.edu, 90 per cent of livestock farmers in Africa rely on conventional animal fodder that requires for instance 10,000 square meters to produce 600kg of fodder, which requires an average of 60days to mature. Smart farmers however have turned to hydroponic fodder which only requires 50 square meters to produce 600kg of much nutritious fodder in 6days which has the potential to increase milk yield by 12.5 per cent. This means of fodder production requires less labour, minimal water and requires no specific climatic condition or nutrients to grow. How to grow hydroponic fodder from maize seeds-A kilo of broken maize seeds produces up to 6kgs of hydroponic fodderRequirement for producing hydroponic fodder in a green house measuring 25x10x10fts-1.5kg of pest free maize seeds per tray-72 trays- Sodium hypochlorite solutionREAD ALSO: Father of hydroponic reap millions in Kenya1st day-Clean grains brought from market with fresh water. -Wash it twice with sodium hypochlorite and leave it for 30min before draining and soaking it in fresh water for 24hours.2nd day-Drain all water and let the seeds breath for 2-3 hours and then place 1.5kg seeds in every tray-Leave them in the green house at a temperature of 60-75 degree Fahrenheit for 48 hours to germinateEach tray will produce 6-8kg of green fodder measuring 25cm on the 7th day. It is estimated that 10kg of hydroponic fodder is sufficient for each cow per day. From 108kg of maize seed, a farmer is able to harvest 570kg of hydroponic fodder able to feed 57 cows.